Grooming of animals, especially large quadrupeds, often results in a handler of the animal being subjected to undesirable bending and reaching positions resulting in fatigue and pain. Such is also the case when attempting to treat injuries or illnesses of animals. In addition, shoeing of horses can be difficult for a farrier due to the size and weight of the horse, and the bent over position required during the hoof trimming and shoeing process. Additionally, injury to the farrier can result when an animal is resistant to being shod.
A solution to these ergonomic problems may be to elevate the animal to facilitate working on the legs; or lowering the animal to facilitate working on the upper body and head. However, the lifting and lowering of large animals is difficult without causing injury or discomfort. Various systems utilizing hip clamps or a hoist and sling arrangement are available. Such arrangements often require bulky machinery and may result in injury or discomfort to the animals being treated.
The use of slings can be satisfactory in some instances. However, slings have fallen out of favor because of the length of time required for setup, and the degree of difficulty in the setup and the balancing of the animal on the sling.
Devices to aid horse shoeing are well known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 124,452 to Shimer, U.S. Pat. No. 286,389 to Coffey, U.S. Pat. No. 457,345 to Fox, and U.S. Pat. No. 1,330,807 to Ilieff disclose devices for immobilizing a horse's leg while raising the hoof to a limited degree whereby a horseshoe may be attached to the hoof. These devices are individually complex and are not disclosed to be used with other types of devices. Such structures are also inherently unstable and may result in an injury to the animal or the farrier.
U.S. Pat. No. 388,569 to Martin and U.S. Pat. No. 1,318,202 to Garnier disclose additional structures for immobilizing a horse. U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,089 to McNulty discloses a device to tether a horse within a grooming stall, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,204 to Knoss discloses a head restraint device for a livestock chute. Neither patent discloses a device enabling the restraining and shoeing of horse in a safe, quick, and easy manner.
It would be desirable to produce a system for raising and lowering an animal which minimizes injury and discomfort to the animal and facilitates a grooming, shoeing, and treatment of the animal.